This highly student-centered lab will help your students decide on the necessary data to collect to decide if in fact their pennies turned into silver or gold. Students will be able to practice their skills of writing claim, evidence, and reasoning statements, as well as practice creating explanatory models. Setup and implementation is easy with my teacher prep guide!

Concepts and skills addressed:

• Density
• Alloy chemistry
• Atomic structure
• Law of conservation
• Drawing particulate models
• Defending claims with evidence and reasoning

Learning objectives: Your students will be able to…

• Identify evidence that will help identify the composition of a pre/post 1982 penny
• Decide on the data that must be collected to determine if a penny turned into silver or gold
• Use evidence and reasoning to defend whether or not a penny turned into silver or gold
• Explain what an alloy is and its properties

Materials your students will need:

1. Pennies
2. 2.0M sodium hydroxide solution
3. Mossy zinc
4. Metals tongs or forceps
5. Steel wool
6. Evaporating dish
7. Hot plate
8. Stirring rod
9. Beaker

This lab activity includes:

• 2-page student lab handout
• Procedural flowchart guidelines
• 4-page article
• Scaffolded sections for obtaining data
• Post-lab questions
• Safety precautions
• Clean up instructions
• Teacher’s prep guide
• Answer key

Your students will love this lab because its fun and you'll love it because it's easy on your prep time!